


Compare and Contrast

by JayTDawgzone9999



Category: Dr. STONE (Anime), Dr. STONE (Manga)
Genre: Character Study, Childhood Trauma, Disturbing Themes, Dreams, Dreams and Nightmares, F/M, Light Angst, Memories, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, Mild Blood, Mild Sexual Content, Mild Smut, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Surreal, TKS-Free Week, TKSTsukasaandUSAShipsMonth, TKSevents, TheKingdomofShipping, Trauma, Week4-Dreams/Nightmares/Sleep/Free Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-07 01:15:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,936
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26168491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JayTDawgzone9999/pseuds/JayTDawgzone9999
Summary: During a quiet night in America, Tsukasa reflects on his past, present, and future, finding that nothing is quite so simple as he had previously assumed.
Relationships: Hokutouzai Minami/Shishiou Tsukasa
Kudos: 2
Collections: TKS Tsukasa Ship Month & USA Ship Month - August 2020





	Compare and Contrast

**Author's Note:**

> My fic for the 4th week of the TKS Tsukasa and USA ships month. I decided to go with a little bit of everything here, hence why I tagged it as dreams/nightmares/sleep/free week.

America was a strange land. 

Once one of the largest, most powerful countries in the world, it was now nothing more or less than what the rest of the world was-unsettled, pristine wilderness. Its natural beauty was like nothing else Tsukasa had ever seen, or would ever see again. The vast size of the country alone was enough to intimidate him, not that he dared to show that to anyone else. 

The soft glow of the crescent moon, soon to set, and the familiar lights of the stars twinkling in the sky above Tsukasa kept him company, the chirping of a few crickets providing the only background ambiance. It was to be expected, after all, as Tsukasa had woken up early-quite early, in fact, finding himself unable to sleep. Though his tent was nice and warm and so was the slender, petite woman inside it, sleeping on a pile of furs he had procured himself, sleep abruptly left him after spending quite an enjoyable evening with her. If there was one thing in abundance in America, it was animals-specifically animals that had soft fur to make warm pelts from. Over time, Tsukasa had hunted a few of them for food and other uses, the circle of life continuing as it always had as he set out to perform these simple actions. It was all well and good. He missed Mirai, of course, but he knew he would see her again.

The alternative was intolerable. And nobody, not even his new friends, would get in his way. 

To be fair, calling them all friends was a stretch. Tsukasa had never had friends in the before times-in the world before the petrification, he lived a solitary life, fighting to earn money to keep his sister alive and missed out on the opportunities that were available to many others to make friends. It was only after the petrification that he realized he had never cared in the first place. 

______

"Hey, Tsukasa, are you okay?" a few days after Senku revived him for the second time, Tsuaksa found himself staring into the distance without seeing anything while someone was trying to talk to him. He heard the sound of their voice in his ears but didn't hear the words they said until Senku grabbed his elbow and reminded Tsukasa that one of the villagers (whose name he didn't remember even after being told what it was 5 separate times,) was trying to ask him a question. 

"Oh-yes, I'm fine. Sorry about that, I just got a little distracted, that's all." 

Senku gave him an odd look, but soon moved on when he heard Ryuusui calling him. 

A few weeks later, the five generals, as Senku seemed to refer to himself and a group of four other men he trusted above anyone else to make leadership decision for the Kingdom of Science, were all sitting around a table having a discussion. Tsukasa, who happened to be walking by, felt his blood pressure rise and his jaw clench when Ryuusui greeted him with far too much enthusiasm. 

"Hey, Tsukasa, how've you been? You're looking as strong as ever!" 

Tsukasa ignored him, giving Senku a short nod when Senku said hi to him.

"You wanna hang out with us for a bit? Senku said we're all free after we're done with our meeting." Ryuusui, unperturbed by Tsukasa's frosty demeanor, asked him. 

"No." 

"Oi, Senku, is Tsukasa okay?" Chrome asked Senku after Tsukasa walked off without another word. 

"He's a bit of an introverted type, he doesn't mean any harm." Senku reassured Chrome. "I know he can be kind of prickly but I can't blame him too much, he's been through a lot lately." 

Later that evening, while Senku was hanging out with the other four of the five generals and other people in the Kingdom of Science, Tsukasa found himself walking by a large cave. Inside, when he stepped close to its entrance to investigate a bright glint of light he saw reflecting off of something nearby, he noticed part of some old machine halfway buried in the ground. The glint of light brought memories of cars, so many cars, spewing exhaust fumes everywhere, of machinery, of airplanes, and of all the carbon footprint so many of these different devices let out into the world, destroying the health of the environment. The noise, the smell, the smoke, the pollution, it was everywhere, it was inescapable. 

Salty and metallic, the taste of blood blossomed on Tsukasa's tongue when he realized he had bit his lip, crouching on the ground holding his head, rage flooding through him as a vein popped on his forehead. 

Several hours later, Tsukasa returned to Ishigami Village wearing only his long red skirt, now in tatters; carrying a wild boar on his back. 

"Oh no, Tsukasa, are you okay? Did you get hurt?" Minami, who ran over to him once he dropped the animal's corpse on the ground in front of him, asked, and only then did Tsukasa realize he hadn't cleaned up well enough after killing the animal. 

"I'm fine, it's not my blood." Digging out the entrails before dragging the boar back to camp made sense, but it was also a very dirty process. 

Somewhere in the back of Tsukasa's mind, he heard a strange ringing sound. It didn't sound unfamiliar but something about the quality of the sound frightened him and he didn't speak a word about it to anyone. 

______

Here in America, life wasn't all that much different from the way it was back in Japan. As he always had after the petrification, Tsukasa awoke every morning to perform the tasks that he needed to do and went to bed every night to prepare to do the same thing the next day. Sometimes nightmares-usually involving Mirai, and occasionally involving Senku, and sometimes involving things that could not be named or described and were too horrible to bother with the effort, invaded his subconscious, showing him visions that left him grabbing his blankets white-knuckled, sweat coating his forehead and a cold, clammy pit in his stomach threatening to swallow him whole. 

People tried to talk to him-people always tried to talk to him. It was nothing to him. Without Mirai around, Tsukasa spent his days doing what Senku told him to do, no matter how he felt about it, and during the night, he shared his tent with Minami because having a tent all to himself was wasteful and she didn't take up much space, didn't smell bad, and was very neat. She was also not annoying, which was an added bonus. 

Earlier that evening, Tsukasa found himself staring into space again without seeing anything in front of him when the rest of Senku's intrepid gang of explorers bent on reviving modern civilization, along with Mozu, Kirisame, and Matsukaze, were off doing whatever they were doing. Though in moments like that, his mind wandered to strange places-odd, foreign landscapes alien to the human understanding of space and geography, leaving him unable to focus his eyes on the things that existed in the world around him, his ears picked up on every little sound and his nose smelled every scent the wind carried. 

It was only when he heard the sound of soft, light footsteps, almost as light as those of a child, and felt a small, soft hand touch his forearm did he remember where he was again. 

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you!" Minami apologized when she saw a glint of a strange light in Tsukasa's eyes and a brief expression of fear on his face. "I was just wondering where you were and just wanted to make sure you were okay!" 

"It's fine." Tsukasa assured her. "I was just taking a walk." 

Minami gave him a quizzical look-the vacant expression in his eyes with no light in them told her otherwise but she didn't press the issue. "Well, as long as you're sure you're feeling alright. Francois is making everyone some hot cocoa if you'd like some, figured I might as well let you know since I came out all this way." 

"That sounds nice." Minami couldn't help but worry when she heard Tsukasa's voice go flat like that-it was something she had first recalled happening once when she was interviewing him after a particularly intense fight he had won. It worried her just as much now as it had on that day, but realizing that Tsukasa was a very private man and not wanting to invade his privacy, Minami simply observed him, keeping an eye on him to the best of her ability to make sure he was okay. If he wanted to talk about it, he would. As a reporter, her only job was to ask the questions she was supposed to ask-only those and nothing more unless her subject showed interest in continuing a conversation outside the bounds of her particular assignment. "I'll be there in a little bit, you can go on ahead if you'd like." 

Tsukasa's eyes held an undetermined amount of emotion in them as he watched her run off, his mind still a bit unsettled. He was always a bit unsettled, to be fair. As long as he could keep it under wraps, however, and bite his tongue and swallow his feelings to do what Senku told him to do, everything would be okay, he told himself. 

A few hours passed, and after joining everyone to enjoy some hot cocoa the chef made, Tsukasa and Minami headed back to the tent they shared, Minami curling up under several layers of furs and blankets, pulling them up to her head in an attempt to get warm as quickly as possible until Tsukasa crawled under there with her, being careful not to pull too much of the blankets away from her. He gave off a more satisfying heat than the blankets did in her opinion, and Tsukasa felt the same about her. Sharing a certain type of mood in the moment, it was easy enough to go from there and remove each other's clothes to exchange hugs and kisses and to have hands run through hair and wander over bare skin, stroking and caressing curves and muscles and exploring from head to toe, heat pooling in Tsukasa's stomach and blood rushing through his veins. 

With the passage of time stretching from evening to night and night to the wee hours of the morning, Tsukasa enjoyed relieving his stress with the help of the pretty woman he shared a temporary living space with, curling up beside her when they were both thoroughly worn out, holding her close to him in his strong, muscled arms. It was only when he awoke several hours later, his body urging him to move even though the sky was still dark and would take a little more time until the gray shade of the period before dawn would reveal itself. Being careful not to disturb his companion, he dressed and made his way out of their tent, sitting on a large rock while he gazed up at the darkness above him. 

America was a strange land. Though time had done away with many of the cultural differences between humans of different countries and erased all but the oldest and most distinctive natural landmarks of different places, there was an undeniable feeling deep in Tsukasa's bones, deep inside every atom and cell in his body, something that told him the most unexpected adventures were yet to come, for better or for worse. 

For now, Tsukasa decided, all he could do was wait.


End file.
